Sleepless
by smillaraaq
Summary: A cranky latenight conversation that leads to an uneasy rapprochement. Not really overtly shippy, but can be read as the first faltering steps towards a rather conflicted Zutara, if you like that sort of thing.


_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** insert standard disclaimer about not owning any of these characters here, blah blah blah. Got it? OK._

"AARGH...stupid ROCK!"

Katara had been trying very, very hard to be as quiet as possible, hoping to avoid disturbing the slumber of her travelling companions. She'd done it before, after all, and it was easy enough to slip from her bedroll quiet as a lizard-mouse, get what she needed, and slip back. This night, however, she was having a string of rotten luck. The campfire had died down faster than usual, somehow, and the shimmering coals just didn't give much in the way of light. The stone she'd selected as best she could in the dim red glow turned out to be bigger and heavier than she'd expected, and so unexpectedly smooth that it had slipped from the scrap of leather she'd wrapped around it. And then her fingers had gotten scorched when she tried to keep it in her grasp -- tried, and failed, with the heavy stone thudding painfully on her foot as a final insult. Really, it was too much for a girl to bear all at once. She was already moody from pain and lack of sleep, and the added affront of smarting fingers and a throbbing bruise and wounded dignity was just too much; she couldn't help giving voice to her frustration in a quiet hiss. Katara tried to count her blessings. At least dropping a rock onto her foot didn't make that much noise; she was feeling miserable enough that she just didn't even want to think about how embarassing it would be if someone had been awakened by this string of mishaps. _Especially not..._

"I thought even _barbarians _knew enough to teach their children not to play with fires." Even at a low whisper, the voice dripped with sarcasm; Katara's hands clenched into fists as she imagined the superior smirk that doubtlessly accompanied the words.

_...not him. Moon and sea, if anyone had to wake up, why did it have to be HIM?_ Her fists clenched a little tighter. Oh, she knew there were perfectly good reasons for Zuko to be here with the group now; they'd all argued over the matter long enough. And she knew Aang in particular seemed to want to go beyond mutual convenience into friendship, although it seemed the Airbender was the only one of the group hopeful or naive enough to go that far. But Katara still couldn't bring herself to forget and forgive black ships looming over her village, or that hateful voice trying to buy her with her mother's necklace, or any of the rest of their less-than-cooperative past. For all that they were supposed to be allies now, she still couldn't stand his attitude. Every time he spoke, his voice seemed to ring with condescension -- not that he spoke all that much, or that the silence was much of an improvement. Growing up with Sokka, she never would have believed that a boy who didn't say much could ever be more annoying than one who never stopped talking; the exiled Fire Nation prince had proven just how wrong she was. Even when he didn't say a word, there always seemed to be something about the older boy -- a set of the shoulders, a curl of the lip -- that spoke wordlessly of his arrogance and sense of superiority, setting her teeth on edge.

_Condescending so-and-so thinks he's so funny..._

"I'm _not_ a child!" she snapped back at the shadows beyond the dying coals. "And I always thought a _prince_ would have learned enough manners to leave people alone!" Katara really wasn't in the mood for an argument, not now, certainly not with him; but his tone was so infuriating, she just couldn't stop herself from rising to the bait.

There was a faint rustling of cloth from the direction of his voice, a faint shifting of lighter shadows within the darkness -- was her tormenter sitting up?

"Then I suppose you must have a good reason for awakening people and testing their _manners_ with your clumsiness." Zuko's harsh whisper sounded almost bored this time, and Katara found this somehow even more maddening than simple mockery.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a good reason. I happen to be extremely tired and sore and I'm really tired of dealing with it and I just wanted to grab a hot stone to try to ease some of the pain so I could maybe finally get some SLEEP! If that's quite alright with _your highness_, of course." Katara wrapped her arms tightly around her chest and whirled back to face the dying embers. Tears of frustration were pricking at her eyes; she angrily blinked them away._ I'll be DAMNED if I cry in front of that insensitive lout. I won't do it, I won't..._She gritted her teeth at the sound of his approaching footsteps, and fixed her stare on a particularly bright coal. _What does that insuferable bully want NOW?_

"It's been days since we last came across anything even remotely threatening. How could you possibly have injured yourself?"

"I didn't say I was injured! Look, it's...it's a GIRL thing, understand?" Her cheeks burned, and Katara suddenly felt very grateful for the same lack of light she'd been cursing moments earlier.

"A gi...oh." Now it was Zuko's turn to sound uncomfortable. "I didn't know that, ah, does that always hurt when...I mean, can't you use your bending to heal that?"

"It's not like an injury. There's nothing broken to heal. And the pain...sometimes it's nothing much at all, and sometimes it can be pretty bad, and sometimes it's in between."_ And today's pretty bad... _Katara sighed, wondering why she was telling this to a boy, let alone this particular boy._ I'm tired. I'm not thinking straight. But he almost sounded NICE there for a moment._

"So heat helps with the...soreness. It's like a muscle ache?" Curiosity seemed to be vying with embarrassment in his voice.

"Yes. Willowbark or poppy tea can help a bit, but when the cramps are really bad, my Gran-gran taught me how to wrap up hot stones so they won't burn your skin. They can give off warmth for hours..that helps a lot, and it doesn't taste nearly as bad as the tea."

"Effective...but isn't that rather primitive, cuddling up to a hard lump of rock?"

"Primitive? PRIMITIVE?" Katara spun about to face Zuko. His dull clothing seemed to recede into the shadows, but the pale skin of his face and hands caught what little glow was left to the dying coals. Some part of Katara's mind noted that his expression seemed honestly puzzled, rather than sneering, but it wasn't enough restrain her angry tongue. "Well, I suppose maybe back in the FIRE NATION you've got some sort of wonderful advanced technology that my PRIMITIVE mind couldn't begin to comprehend, but I'm not in the Fire Nation right now, and rocks are what I've got! So unless you've got some better suggestion..."

He frowned and took a step closer to her. "Actually, yes."

Katara gasped in shock as the older boy reached out and clasped his hands firmly about her waist. _Don't scream. Sokka will want to kill him, and then Aang will be so disappointed. You can handle him. You've fought him before. Don't scream... _She reached for the stopper of her water skin, started to pull it out, only to pause dumbstruck at the growing awareness of intense heat radiating from Zuko's hands. The heat grew, spreading deeper through her back and belly; Katara could sense her aching muscles softening, pain and tension melting away. The relief was so sudden it was almost overwhelming: her eyelids fluttered for a moment, her knees felt like jelly, and she was suddenly grateful that there were strong hands to help her stay on her feet. She blinked and looked up at his face, searching for a sign of...something, anything, to help her make sense of this; he turned away, staring out into the darkness past his left shoulder.

"Zuko?" Now it was Katara's turn to sound faintly confused. Zuko said nothing as he released his grip on her waist; she couldn't quite supress a disappointed sigh as the delicious warmth vanished. He knelt for a moment beside the remnants of the fire and picked up a stone slightly smaller than the one she had dropped just a few minutes earlier. She watched, wide-eyed, as flames suddenly blazed up in his hand, licking about the stone, only to die away as suddenly as they had appeared. His face was expressionless as he held the rock, now shimmering with heat, towards her.

"Here." She stared blankly at him for a moment, then picked up the discarded leather wrapping so she could take the heated stone. Wordlessly, Zuko turned and headed back towards his bedroll. Katara cradled the bundled warmth of the stone against herself and stared after him as he vanished into the darkness.

_What just happened here? And...where are MY manners?_

"Zuko? I...I want to say thank you. I feel a lot better now. I really do appreciate it. But...why did you help me? You didn't have to do any of that..." He didn't answer until she was almost back to her own bedroll. Katara had to strain her ears to make out the quiet words.

"Maybe I just wanted to see if fire could do anything besides hurt and destroy."

And as she lay there, still sleepless despite the soothing warmth of the rock clasped tightly against her belly, she found herself wondering, again and again, why those last few words had sounded so strangely bitter and sad.


End file.
